The Houston Cougar Womens Basketball team erased an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to come from behind and beat Texas Tech, 79-75, in their home opener, on Sunday, inside H&PE Arena.

TOP PERFORMERSHouston: The Cougars saw three players reach double figures including a team-high and career-high 22 from Serithia Hawkins. Dorian Branch also tallied a career-high with 20 points, while Angela Harris added 17 points to go along with five steals and five assists. Hawkins and Jasmyne Harris paced the Cougars on the glass with seven rebounds each.

Texas Tech: The Red Raiders also had a trio of players reach the double-figure plateau. Recee Caldwell led Texas Tech with 24 points and nine assists on 10-of-18 shooting from the line, while Brittany Brewer tallied a double-double with 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Brielle Blaire also had double-digits with 14 points.

NEWS AND NOTES

- Houston won its fifth consecutive game for the first time since winning 17 straight from Jan. 6-March 10, 2011.- Houston has come from behind when trailing by eight points or more in five of its seven wins this season. The Cougars trailed by 14 with 1:35 remaining in the first half against UTA, and came back from deficits of 14, 12 and 12 against Milwaukee, Liberty and Northeastern, respectively.- With four 3-pointers made in the contest, Angela Harris moved up to 15th all-time on the Houston 3-pointers made list, passing Nicole Oliver (71; 2000-04) and Shondra Bush (74; 2001-03).- With nine points in the contest, sophomore guard Jasmyne Harris now has 505 points through 40 career games.- Junior Serithia Hawkins pulled down seven rebounds in the game, giving her 537 in her career, passing Pat Luckey (536; 1993-96) for 15th on the all-time rebounding list.- The Cougars forced 20 Texas Tech turnovers in the game and came away with 11 steals. Houston entered first in the American Athletic Conference in turnovers forced per game (24.75) and steals (110), while ranking third and ninth in the nation, respectively.- Houston outscored the Red Raiders 16-5 in points off turnovers.- Houston’s 7-2 record means the Cougars are off to their best start since the 2010-11 squad opened the season 8-1.With the win, Houston improved to 39-14 all-time against Texas Tech, while Hughey improved to 1-2.